SB 371 
.R36 
Copy 1 




AsryJUxA* *J 



^INSTANTANEOUS^ 

Peach Culture Guide 



PUBLISHED BY 

WILLIAM S. REINERT, 

A COMPLETE TREATISE 



Germination of the Peach Stone, Cultivation of the Ground 

previous to Planting, Root Pruning before Planting, 

Pruning after Planting, the Borer or Peach 

Grub, the Yellows and their indications, 

and other valuable information 

concerning the 

CULTIVATION OF THE PEACH. 



Entered awarding to Act of Congress, in the {/ear 
1991, by WILLIAM S. REIXERT, in the Office of the 
Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



<&&* 
^<- 



-a. 






WILLIAM S. REINERT'S 

i nsr s t a i>t t jPj. nsi e: o xj s 

*Peaeh (Bui Jure (Suide. 

i t i 

Being disabled by a paralytic stroke of 
the left side of my body, I was compelled 
to abandon work. I, therefore, made 
an effort to fulfill the wishes of those who 
have interrogated me time and again 
how I was doing this and the other, and 
what I was applying to the trees, &c. 

As I do not feel like throwing my ex- 
perience and experimenting for the past 
thirty to thirty-five years entirely to the 
winds, I will give it for the small sum of 
one dollar and twenty-five cents, which 
is the impulse that prompted me to write 
the following pages and present them to 
the public. 

I am aware that it is the desire of every 
man, whatever may be his pursuit or 
condition in life, whether he lives in 
town or country, to enjoy fine fruit, to 
provide it for his family and, if possible, 
to cultivate the trees in his own garden 
and with his own hands. 

The agriculturalist, whatever be the ex- 
tent or condition of his grounds, consid- 
ers an orchard one of the first things, or 
at least indispensable. The merchant or 
the professional man, who has by half a 
lifetime of drudgery in town secured a 
fortune or a competency that enables 
him to retire to a country or suburban 



1 PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

villa, looks forward to his fruit garden as 
one of the chief sources of those rural 
comforts and pleasures he longed and 
so earnestly labored and wished for. 
Also the mechanic or the artisan, who 
has laid by enough from his hard earn- 
ings to purchase a homestead, considers 
the planting of his fruit trees as one of 
the first and most important steps to- 
wards improvement. He anticipates 
the pleasure of attending them in his 
spare hours, watching their growth and 
progress to maturity, and of gathering 
their ripe and delicious fruits and placing 
them before his family and friends as the 
valued product of his own garden and of 
his own skill and labor. Fruit culture, 
therefore, whether considered as a 
branch of profitable industry or as exer- 
cising a most beneficial influence upon 
the health, habits and tastes of the peo- 
ple, becomes a great national interest, 
and whatever may assist in making it 
better understood and more interesting 
•and better adapted ro the various wants, 
tastes and circumstances of the com- 
munity, cannot fail to subserve the pub- 
lic good. 

To those unacquainted with the pre- 
vious condition of fruit culture in the in- 
terior of our good and well-known old 
Berks County, this new planting spirit 
has appeared as a sort of a speculative 
manna, and the idea has suggested itself 
to them that the country would soon be 
overstocked with fruits. This is, in my 
opinion, a greatly mistaken apprehen- 
sion. After all that has been done let us 
look at the actual condition of fruit cul- 
ture at the present time. I have noticed 
in recent papers in the best fruit grow- 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 5 

ing counties in our state of Pennsylvania, 
the entire fruit plantations of more than 
three-fourths of the agricultural popula- 
tion consist of very ordinary orchards ot 
apples. Not a dish of fine pears, plums, 
cherries, apricots, grapes nor raspberries 
has ever appeared on their table and not 
a step has been taken to produce them. 
And, further, how can such mistaken ap- 
prehensions be formed when such a place 
as our City of Reading has added 15,648 to 
her number in our last census, the 
same with other cities, some still more. 
Within a few vears the foreign market 
has taken from this country in one 
season between one and two million bar- 
rels of apples and three thousand tons ot 
evaporated fruit. The horticultural pro- 
duction of the Mississippi, consisting 
mainly of fruit, has been estimated at an 
annual value of one hundred million 
dollars, while more limited regions give 
corresponding returns. 

1 further noticed in a paper that a sin- 
gle county in western New York (Orleans) 
furnished for market two hundred and 
sixty-nine thousand dol'ars' worth of 
fruit, besides the amount consumed at 
home, in one year, and other counties 
have occasionally exceeded this sum. 
Two hundred thousand bushels of peaches 
were canned at San Francisco in 1881, 
and the dried fruits of that state sold for 
over two million dollars, of which the 
raisin crop amounted to half a million 
more. 

The lesson which these facts suggest to 
those who own lands in the more favor- 
able localities in the state of Pennsyl- 
vania, and especially those in its rich and 
fertile districts east of the mountains, is 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

engage in the cultivation of the peach 
and supply the markets of our cities with 
its luscious fruit instead of spending 
thousands of dollars annually for the 
benefit of the peach growers of Delaware 
and Maryland. 

The peach was introduced by the early 
settlers of the country, at different places 
and at different periods, from 1650 to 
1680, taking rank with the apple and the 
small fruit around these rustic habita- 
tions, adding its rich tributes to the 
scanty luxuries of those heroic pioneers 
in our American forests. 

The peach, now so shamefully neg- 
lected, is not a new fruit to Pennsyl- 
vania, and the tree is no stranger to our 
domestic culture, for during the past two 
hundred years, wherever carea for, culti- 
vated and protected, it has been prolific. 
However,under disgraceful neglect,its en- 
ergies and fruitful ness have only yielded 
to the visitation of a fatal disease, the yel- 
lows, which, I think, is our duty, as well as 
our interest, to endeavor to counteract, the 
same as we would disease in our faithful 
animals, dependent upon us for support 
and protection in return for a short life 
of labor in our fields. 

Let us in this strain turn to our Bible 
and learn again the price of good fruit at 
the Creation, as fixed by the Deity Him 
self, and despair not. The injunction we 
there find is, " Dress the garden and keep 
it." Further, we might here also awaken 
our languid interest by reading the para- 
ble of the vineyard, wherein idleness is 
called to industry in the question, "Why 
stand ye here all the day idle ?" Further, 
it says, "In the sweat of thy face shalt 
thou eat bread," &c. 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 7 

Can anyone expect to obtain such a 
luxury as the peach at a less price ? I 
well recollect when at home with father 
it was aptly said that "no fruit this side 
of Paradise has ever rivaled it," and as 
a wholesome fruit of the season it has 
the highest character from the medical 
profession. Half a century ago the ex- 
pression was often made "that a basket 
of healthy, ripe peaches in the market 
was worth more than a pound of calomel 
in the shop, and that it robbed the doc- 
tor of a patient and the druggist of a 
prescription." 

In my opinion the people of Pennsyl- 
vania should authorize the Legislature to 
give us an act similar to that which the 
Legislature of Michigan has given the 
peach growers there, viz : An act to pre- 
vent the spread of the disease (the yel- 
lows), compelling the eradication of all 
such trees from the orchard as soon as 
they present the first appearance of dis- 
ease. 

This plan of ridding the orchard of dis- 
eased trees cuts off the spread by conta- 
gion, which, as a rule, passes so rapidly 
over an orchard to the destruction of the 
healthy trees, and is one of the means 
for retarding their progress. This spe- 
cies of legislation is similar to that we 
have here in Pennsylvania, to prevent 
the spread of noxious weeds by enforcing 
the destruction of the plant before it ma- 
tures its seeds ; the one plan removing 
the source of complaint through the de- 
struction of the seed, and the other at- 
taining the same object, if fungi is the 
cause of the spread of the disease. And 
I may here repeat that the accumulated 
evidence of all this period is fully and 



8 PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

most overwhelmingly confirmatory of the 
declaration with which I set out. 

I was raised on a tanyard in Exeter 
Township, Berks County, Pa., and as this 
will be part of my life, I will give it in 
the English language, which we were ac- 
customed to make use of in those days in 
the surrounding neighborhood. I well 
recollect father having had a tanyard, 
and along with it 25 acres of land. On 
the latter there were 15 good sized, fresh- 
growing apple trees, but they produced 
a worthless kind of fruit. One day my 
father called on an old man by the name 
of Zellere, asking him kindly if he would 
graft 15 apple trees for him. With great 
willingness he responded "yes." Mr. 
Zellers was then a man some 00 years of 
age (5 years younger than my age at this 
writing). When Mr. Zellers was at work 
I and my three younger brothers were 
standing and watching him every spare 
time we had to learn grafting. But none 
of us had courage enough to ask the old 
gentleman about its merits. Finally we 
broached the matter to mother, when 
she spoke a good word for us to father, 
that he should ask the old gentleman for 
us, as we were so anxious to learn it. So 
one day we noticed father standing under 
the tree where Mr. Zellers was grafting, 
when we made it our business to work 
ourselves alongside of father and gave 
him a nudge now and then without the 
notice of Mr. Zellers, in order that father 
might ask for us. When they had fin- 
ished their conversation father remarked 
to Mr. Zellers that here were his four 
sons, and that they were very anxious to 
learn grafting. Then Mr. Zellers turned 
his head from the tree down towards us 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. i> 

boys, with a friendly smile on his face, 
and with his eyes over the top of his spec- 
tacles, and asked: "Well, which one of 
you would like to learn it?' 1 1 com- 
menced with a heavy heart and with 
quivering lips to get it out, and made the 
reply that, being the eldest, thought I 
was entitled to it. Then my father and 
Mr. Zellers had a hearty laugh over it, 
and that finished it for that time, and we 
were ordered to our work. We went but 
much dissatisfied. While at work we 
were complaining that we would never 
get a chance to learn anything. But we 
did not understand it then. When Mr. 
Zellers had his job finished, father and 
he (Zellers) went into the shop and set- 
tled the bill for the grafting. After they 
were through settling, all at once Mr. 
Zellers made his appearance at the shop 
door, and, calling to us boys in the yard, 
said: "Now, boys, come in, as 1 am ready 
to teach you how to graft, and one 
branch more than you have asked for. I 
will also teach you how to inoculate. * Y 
We left in a great hurry. The old gen- 
tleman instructed us very plainly, both 
how to graft and how to inoculate, with 
the remark that he hoped it would be of 
great benefit to us in the future. We 
thanked him kindly for it. Off we went, 
I for one walking more on my toes than 
on my heels, with an idea that I knew 
all that was necessary to know in this 
world. No doubt father and Mr. Zellers 
had another hearty laugh after we had 
gone. Sometime afterwards my father 
sent me on an errand to a neighbor, Mr. 
George Boone. I finished my errand for 
father. At the same time I found Mr. 
Boone just dressing his grape vines. 



10 PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

This was in the month of February, 1840. 
The grape was another favorite of mine. 
I commenced to ask questions of Mr. 
Boone. All at once Mr. Boone picked up 
some of the vines and dressed them for 
me, and gave me full instructions how to 
plant them, which I did strictly to his 
orders, and they produced a fine growth 
the following summer. But they were of 
little benefit to me. 

In the year 1844 I left home to learn 
the millwright trade, after which I trav- 
eled from east to west and from north to 
south. During my travels I picked up 
all the information on Peach and Grape 
Culture that I could get hold of. Part of 
the fourteen years that I lived in Phila- 
delphia I worked for Mr. E. Heston, 
corner of Broad and Buttonwood streets. 
At leisure hours Mr. Heston and myself 
were frequently in conversation on the 
art of Peach Culture, when he informed 
me of some old papers he had at home 
of his grandfather's, who had a peach 
orchard in what he called West Philadel- 
phia, which was little known to me at 
that time. Afterwards I asked the priv- 
ilege of Mr. Heston to borrow the papers. 
Williiigly he consented to the loan, re- 
questing that I take good care of them, 
Avhich I promised to do in good faith. 
All I wanted was the information they 
contained. I had been informed at dif- 
ferent times that the yellows had made 
their fii>t appearance in the neighbor- 
hood of Philadelphia, but it seemed to 
me different from the following papers 
of Mr. Heston. I will give them as they 
read. The first public notice on the sub- 
ject I find in a communication from 
Judge Richard Peters, president of the 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 11 

Philadelphia Agricultural Society, which 
was instituted in 1785. From this care- 
fully-prepared article it is very evident 
the Judge took a deep interest in the 
growth and cultivation of the peach. 
Here is what he states : "I know not in 
the catalogue of our trees one more de- 
sirable nor one more subject to mortifi- 
cation, decay and disease than the peach. 
I have cultivated it from my early youth, 
about fifty years ago, on* the farm on 
which I now reside. My father had large 
peace orchards, which yielded abun- 
dantly, and they so continued for years, 
producing bountiful crops, with but little 
attention, then the trees began nearly 
all at once to sicken and finally perish. 
I have often found sick trees to infect 
those in vigor near them, by some mor- 
bid effluvia." I further have noticed in 
the papers the old Judge refers to a plan- 
tation of 800 trees of natural fruit, which 
he call* an extensive orchard, planted by 
Mr. Edward Heston, near Hestonville, 
West Philadelphia, near what is known 
as the Centennial grounds, on rather flat 
clay land. He further stated that Mr. 
Heston began to suffer from the disease 
called the yellows. Following up his ob- 
servations in the progress of this dis- 
ease in Mr. Hestoivs orchard, in Sep- 
tember, 1807, he writes : "As I predicted, 
the yellows are seen making destructive 
ravages in Mr. Heston's peach plantation. 
I have lofct a great proportion of my 
trees from the same malady. This year 
some of them were young and vigorous, 
but Ave have had two successive rainy 
seasons, and I do not recollect ever 
having seen more general destruction 
among peach trees throughout the 



12 PEACH CULTURE GHJIDE. 

whole country. It seems evident that 
excessive moisture is one, if not the pri- 
mary, cause of this irresistible disease." 

I may here*say that my observations 
fully confirm this statement: that wet 
seasons do favor the production of dis- 
ease. I have frequently noticed it in 
rainy seasons. I should like to detail 
more of my experience to the reader, but 
it would make my writing too long. I 
will turn my attention more to the salient 
parts. These parts I will give in the 
English language, for the uneducated to 
understand, as Ave 11 as the educated, and 
hope it will embrace all those who wish 
to avail themselves of it a hundred fold. 
Hoping the reader will overlook defects, 
my views being to give what little knowl- 
edge I possess on the art of Peach Cul- 
ture for the good of all those who may 
wish it. As named on the first page : 

I. (Termination of the Peach Stone. 

II. Root Pruning Before Planting. 

III. Put Ground in Order and Planting. 

IV. Pruning After Planting. 
V. The Borer, or Peach Grub. 

VI. The Yellows and Their Indications. 

I. The Germination of the Peach Stone. 

In raising peach stock, select no seed 
from any other except from the vei 
healthiest and latest varieties. The 
stones are not injured if kept dry in a 
cellar till winter. If they become water- 
soaked for a length of time, they are 
spoiled. But soaking in water for a day 
or two, and subsequent exposure to 
freezing, facilitate the cracking of the 
stone. They may be kept through win- 
ter mixed with moist sand, and exposed 
to freezing and thawing, or placed in a 



; 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 13 

moist cellar till near spring, then soaked 
in tubs or other vessels till the shells are 
well swollen by moisture. They are 
then placed in thin layers on the surface 
of the ground, aud exposed for two or 
three w r eeks to the action of the frost, 
being protected from drying by a cover- 
ing of soil, leaf, mould or muck. About the 
time the frost disappears from the ground 
they are taken up and cracked by hand, 
placing the stone on the end of a wooden 
block, and striking a gentle blow on the 
side edge with a hammer. The kernels 
are thus taken out uninjured. They are 
then planted one or two inches deep (a 
light thin soil needing more depth than 
a heavy or moist one) and, if they were 
not injured before, nearly every one will 
grow. Care is necessary that the seeds 
do not become dried nor mouldy before 
planting. By planting the stones with- 
out cracking, a very small portion will 
grow, unless the following mode is 
adopted. If the stones can be had fresh 
from the fruit before drying many days, 
and in large quantities, is, perhaps, the 
cheapest, or attended with least labor. 
Mix the fresh stones with moist sand, 
spreading them in a stratum about six 
inches thick over the ground, and cover 
them with a few inches of old straw or 
coarse manure, to prevent drying. Re- 
move this covering in winter to expose 
them freely to freezing and thawing. In 
spring a large portion will be found 
sprouting. Carefully select these and 
plant them immediately in drills made 
with the hoe, covering them by drawing 
earth carefully on with the hands. In a 
few days a second portion will be found 
sprouted. Plant them as before. Those 



14 PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

which do not open (often not more than 
one-third of the whole) will grow another 
year if kept moist and exposed. If the 
soil is good and the cultivator is passed 
between the rows as often as a fortnight 
(oftener is better), when the trees will be 
large enough to bud by the close of the 
summer. 

II. Stem and Root Pruning Before 
Planting. 

Trees obtained from the nursery, with 
the best of care in lifting them out of 
the ground, and through transportation, 
are generally more or less mutilated 
at their roots. Such broken roots should 
be cut back to the solid wood in a slant- 
ing shape. All the fine fibrous roots 
should be dressed in like manner. Should 
any of the side roots extend themselves 
too hard upwards, then cut from the top 
downwards, in a slanting shape. Should 
any of the side roots extend too hard 
downwards, cut them from the underside 
upwards in a slanting shape. Should 
there be two or more top roots and 
twisted around each other, as I have no- 
ticed it to be the case, only one should 
remain, the rest should be cut square off 
close at the bottom or base of the tree, 
when they will not extend themselves 
down again ; for that reason or in con- 
nection I use the word slanting. Experi- 
ence has taught me that it is just as inju- 
rious for the roots to rub and pinch each 
other, as the limbs on top of the tree to 
rub and pinch. 

Next is pruning the stem before plant- 
ing. The top should be divested of every 
limb with a sharp knife, and a portion 
of the top or main stem, some four to six 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 15 

inches, leaving the tree in appearance a 
mere stick above t he ground. The latent 
buds at the base of the limbs cut off. will 
break at the opening of the season and 
soon show a new, vigorous growth by the 
the fall of the year, will be double the 
size of the old ones, had they been left as 
is generally practiced by amateurs. If 
the ground is not in a proper condition 
to plant, the trees should be put in the 
ground again to keep the cut parts of 
the roots fresh. 

III. Put Ground in Order and Planting, 

First, the ground cannot be broken up 
too deep. The depth of 18 inches would 
not be too deep for good results. After- 
wards an application of lime should be 
made, say from 50 to 75 bushels to the 
acre, then followed by a thorough har- 
rowing in order to have the ground well 
pulverized in combination with the lime. 
Next cross checking, the intersection of 
the furrows, as laid out, will form the 
holes for planting, only wanting a little 
filling or leveling with the shovel to pre. 
pare them for the trees, and in planting 
the peach trees at 10x18 feet in the rows 
we will have one hundred and fifty to 
the acre. Using that many hills of corn, 
the corn being planted 3x4 feet, &c. 

By observing the preceding direc- 
tions at least one year's growth may 
be saved to the expectant fruit grower, a 
highly important item in the anticipa- 
tion of an early return for the labor and 
capital invested in the new enterprise. 
The trees to be pruned, and the ground 
put in order as given in the foregoing. 
Next is planting, which, I think, is one 
of the most important parts. As a rule. 



16 PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

it is advisable, in setting out an orchard, 
or in planting a favorite tree, the owner 
should superintend the planting, or plant 
them himself, unless he has some one to 
do it on whom he can fully rely, know- 
ing more or as much as he knows him- 
self. 

In setting the trees under no circum- 
stances should a tree of any kind be set 
deeper than when it stood in the place 
from which it was lifted. If anything not 
so deep. In setting a tree no indolent 
indulgence should be allowed. In order 
to have the work well executed, a pail of 
water should be taken along and the 
roots given an immersion in it, then set 
the Tree in its proper place, following this 
get down on your knees and comb the 
large and fine or fibrous roots out 
straight with your fingers, and then put 
the good, fine or pulverized ground on 
iirst, settling it down firm on the roots 
with your foot, and so On until it is filled 
up to the depth aforesaid. 

If the preceding directions are strictly 
followed, I am satisfied every tree in 
each hundred will grow, if the weather 
and soil are favorable, commencing 
growth at once, unless too scant in roots, 
or the roots were too much dried out be- 
fore planting or through transportation. 
If the latter should be the case, then the 
roots should have an immersion in wa- 
ter from ten to twelve hours before plant- 
ing. I have planted a small peach or- 
chard of 1025 trees of nine different sorts 
in the foregoing way. All made a nice 
growth but two, and they were so poorly 
rooted that I ordered them to be re- 
planted at the extreme ends of the rows, 
with the expectation that they would not 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 17 

grow. I do not approve of the old, ab- 
surd idea of planting, as I so often have 
noticed, the roots are mostly crowded 
down into a small, deep hole twice the 
depth it should be, and into a cold, poor 
subsoil, filling up and settling the earth 
down by a few shakes of the tree, and 
thus leaving it to the chance of a dry 
spring, or a cold, wet one, with a dry 
summer to follow, which is no better for 
such planting, and then it soon withers 
and dies. I cannot help but make the 
assertion that I do think planting of this 
nature is just as bad as a bull in a china 
shop or a pig in a church, neither of 
which is more out of place than such 
planting of that delicious fruit, the peach. 
Practical experience never originated or 
sanctioned such planting for any kind of 
fruit. As before, the tree must be estab- 
lished, in the first place, firmly in the 
ground, with the earth impact about its 
roots, leaving no room for mould or 
other fungi to conceal themselves for 
future depredation. No staking is re- 
quired to keep the tree upright. 

But I must return again to the planting 
of my 1025 trees, and see what good can 
be derived for those who desire informa- 
tion on Peach Culture. The 1025 trees 
were divided into nine different sorts. 
First, will name all those that were 
good bearers on our ground. 1. Stump 
the World ; 2. Waterloo ; 3. Beatrice ; 
4. Foster; 5. Susquehanna; 0. Alexan- 
der. The three remaining sorts com- 
prised 200 trees, which have not yielded 
me five bushels of good peaches in ten 
years on our ground. Of the three re- 
maining sorts there were, 1. Conkling ; 
2. Late Crawford ; 8. Honest John. 



18 PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

At the expiration often years I chopped 
the limbs down, then hitched the horses 
to the stem and took out stem and roots, 
afterwards following the advice laid down 
in Matthew, 3d chapter, 10th verse, in 
the New Testament. After the two first 
named sorts were planted, my son-in-law 
desired to have one tree of each of the 
seven remaining sorts, which were given 
him as a present. Those that were good 
bearers on his ground were Late Craw- 
ford, Conkling, Alexander and Beatrice, 
Those that would not bear on his ground 
were Susquehanna, Foster and Honest 
John. 

This is sufficient evidence, I should 
think, to teach us to be cautious and plant 
say one or two trees of each kind that we 
prefer in a regular orchard. This would 
enable us to know at once what sort of 
peaches w r ould be best for the soil in 
which they are to be planted. 

This requires time, still one of the old 
'squires in my neighborhood said : "All 
good things require time." Which, un- 
doubtedly, is true. It would have been to 
my profit had I made use of the fore- 
going saying. Then 1 would not have 
been the loser of the use of the ground 
where the 200 trees stood for ten years, 
as well as the loser of the trees. * This 
was no small item. If I had those 200 
non-bearing trees of the Susquehanna 
and Foster varieties, instead of one thou- 
sand dollars, they would have yielded me 
fifteen hundred dollars, and five hundred 
dollars are not found behind the door at 
any time. 

IV. Pruning After Planting. 
There is no tree of which I know that 
requires so much caution in pruning as 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 19" 

the peach tree. There is a tendency in 
the germinal buds to push upward and 
outward, at the cost of the side shoots v 
which soon die. Where the tree is formed 
on long bare poles, with only bunches or 
clusters of leaves at the extreme ends of 
those poles, we all know that young trees 
bear large, handsome and excellent fruit, 
while the old, crippled trees yield nothing 
but small, worthless or inferior qualities. 
Continued pruning every year will pre- 
vent these bad results, and preserve the 
heads of the old trees in a thrifty growth, 
and they will continue to yield large, fine 
fruit as in the first years of bearing. As 
the peach always bears its fruit on the 
previous year's growth, and buds never 
start from old wood, therefore it is par- 
ticularly necessary to keep a continued 
supply of young wood evenly distributed 
throughout the whole head of the tree. 
This can only be done by a continued 
cutting back. For the best results to 
perform this operation is to commence 
at the close of winter, and cut off the up- 
per half or two-thirds of every one year's 
shoot. If this process is continued from 
year to year, in connection with cutting 
entirely out all the feeble shoots where 
they grow too thickly, the desired object 
will be fully attained, and instead of hav- 
ing such a long pole, half dying, yelloAv 
skeleton, you will have a tree with a nice, 
round, evenly-distributed head, in the 
shape of a balloon. An important ad- 
vantage of thus pruning the peach will 
be the thinning out of the fruit buds, 
and while the tree will bear perhaps only 
one-third or one-fourth the number of 
specimens, they will be so much larger 



% 30 PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

*ind give as many bushels, while the 
quality will be incomparably superior. 

While living; in Montgomery County, 
Pennsylvania, I formed the acquaintance 
of a man with whom I had been fre- 
quently in conversation in regard to 
eight nice, fresh-growing peach trees on 
his premises, all of one kind. One year 
they were loaded, when they were about 
the size of hickory nuts. Some of 
the limbs were bent in rainbow 
form, when I advised him to thin 
out all the small ones for the good 
of his trees in the future, only leaving on 
about one-half of the fruit. He pro- 
nounced it to be a pity. When I re- 
marked, I certainly should do it if they 
were mine, the rest, no doubt, would be 
of a double size. At that I left him. 
Shortly afterwards, it appears, he fol- 
lowed my advice. Soon he began the op- 
eration of removing all the smallest and 
thinning out unsparingly wherever they 
were crowded. After going over four 
trees in this way, in deference to gentle 
^remonstrances from his better-half, he 
suspended his ''ravages," leaving four 
untouched. 

After they were ripe, in summing up he 
informed me the peaches on the four de- 
nuded trees were more than double the 
size of the others. These were taken to 
thePottstown market and brought thirty- 
four dollars clear of expenses, while the 
fruit from the other four trees, sent to 
the same market, netted only nineteen 
dollars and fifty cents, making a differ- 
ence of fourteen dollars and fifty cents in 
favor of thinning. The eight trees pro- 
duced fifty-three dollars and fifty cents. 
But if all had been thinned the product 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 2t 

would have been sixty-eight dollars. This, 
in my opinion, is quite a striking illustra- 
tion, and, further, it shows what the right 
kind of labor will do for the peach." I 
also wish to make a further reference to 
the eight trees the year following. The 
four denuded trees made a middling good 
growth of bearing wood for the following 
year, but the four undenuded trees made 
quite a small growth of bearing wood 
during the same time, and had a yellow 
taint throughout the following summer. 
It will make my writing of this part too 
long, and will treat more fully further on 
under the proper heading of the yellows. 

V. The Borer, or Peach Grub. 

The peach worm, or borer, is a four 
winged insect, wasp-like in shape, n tid of a 
steel-blue color. It deposits its eggs from 
early in the summer until fall, near the 
ground, at the base of 'he tree. It at- 
tacks the peach, nectarine, apricot, as 
well as the apple tree. It is very easily 
destroyed by scraping away the earth at 
the base of the tree, and following the 
worm to the end of its hole with a sharp- 
pointed knife beneath the thin shell of 
the bark, under cover of which extends 
its depredations. It rarely happens that 
healthy trees are entirely destroyed by 
it, unless greatly neglected, as it confines 
its depredations to the bark, not enter- 
ing the wood on the peach. But it Mill 
on the apple and quince trees. Destroy- 
ing the borer has been done in this way 
ever since I have any knowledge of the 
peach, and I think it a very laborious 
task every spring and fall of the year. 
Using my remedy the borer becomes a 
mere myth, and the injuries done by the 



^22 PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

peach borer and small insects that infest 
the bark and the leaves, are, in my opin- 
ion, mythical, in comparison with the 
yellows, a disease from which I have of- 
ten been told that none would survive. 
The borer has for a long time been con- 
sidered the cause of the yellows, but such 
opinions have gone to the winds long 
ago. In my opinion his sharp-cutting 
mandibles are j ust as clear of communica- 
ting disease as the clear steel of the sharp 
instrument that followed him with uner- 
ring fatality to his insecure quarters at 
the root of the tree. The borer has long 
enough been the scapegoat for the true 
4 'murderer," but, we must confess, he is, 
nevertheless, a most audacious sneak- 
thief to the peach orchard. He carries 
no contagion or infection with him in his 
depredations to supply his wants and 
gratify his appetite. He does not make 
the least effort to escape our vigilance, 
but is always found at the scene of his 
depredations, and is just as easily captured 
in Pennsylvania as in the great peach 
centres of Delaware and Maryland, both 
of which forming the greatest fields for 
his success. He is found just as much in 
healthy as in unhealthy districts, as well 
in healthy as unhealthy trees, and no 
place escapes him. "The Turk," he has 
no east, no west, no north, no south, be- 
ing the autocrat of his oAvn empire and 
eating out the substance of his whole 
people. 

I think we have now traced his haunts, 
and in the following will give a remedy 
how to counteract and prevent his depre- 
dations : First, remove the ground 
around the base of the tree to the root, 
afterwards applying the following com- 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 23 

position at the base of the tree, from the 
roots as far up as six inches above the 
level of the ground, in a warm state of 
consistency, and while applying keep the 
composition well stirred up in order 
to keep the soap well mixed with 
the rest of the ingredients. One applica- 
tion is sufficient for one year. I have 
found some trees to last two years if ap- 
plied strictly in accordance with direc- 
tions. The expanding growth of the tree 
will cause divisions in a year or so. Such 
divisions or separated parts become nec- 
essary to be looked after, otherwise this 
sneak-thief of a borer may discover the 
divisions before we do. Again, if the fol- 
lowing is applied, as before named, I 
will guarantee the borer will not commit 
any of his depredations on such a tree. 
I have found the composition to be an 
excellent remedy for any fresh wound on 
a tree. The sap will flow up between the 
composition and wood on the tree the 
same as it will between the bark and 
wood. 

Following is the composition : 1. Four 
pounds of rosin ; 2 One and one-half 
pounds of beef tallow; 3. Eight table- 
spoonsful of pure linseed oil ; 4. One 
pound of common or home-made soap. 
Heat over a slow fire until it is well 
mixed, when it will be ready to be ap- 
plied. 

This composition should be applied 
first, then the second, as follows : 1. One 
peck of fresh lime, well slacked ; 2. Six 
good-sized, fresh cattle droppings ; 8. 
Three pounds of caustic soda, adding 
enough water to dissolve the soda ; 4. One 
bushel of yellow clay (generally found on 
top or between limestones ; 5. One-quar- 



24 PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

ter pound of Paris green, and have the 
whole well mixed by adding of water to 
the consistency of soft mason mortar, 
when it should remain in such a state for 
twenty-four hours before applying to the 
trees. Afterwards take two buckets, 
one with water and the other partly 
filled with the mortar, and reduce it to 
the thickness of thick white-wash by ad- 
ding water. Then cover the tree over 
from the roots with the first composition 
around the whole stem into the branches 
as far as can conveniently be done. For 
good results the latter composition should 
be applied early in the month of May, 
and then at the end of July or beginning 
of August, which is the time when these 
insects will look for their breeding places. 
The first named composition need only 
be applied once in three to four years, 
unless divisions should appear, then re- 
place or re-cover them again as before, 
when the latter composition should be 
applied as before stated. The foregoing 
having been done as directed, replace 
the ground around the base of the tree, 
and if properly done you will experience 
little trouble from insect depredations. 
But follow my advice, as I have experi- 
mented with the former remedies and 
they did well for me. 

VI. The Yelloivs and Their Indications. 

The yellows I have heard explained 
in a great many different ways, and al- 
ways listened to the explanations with 
care. In the course of my examinations 
I have found much good common sense,, 
as well as a great deal of good nonsense, 
on the subject. The cause of the disease 
is supposed to be due mostly to insect 



PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 25 

depredation, which, I think, is a great 
error, I having planted trees in the spring 
of the year and have failed to find the 
first sign of insect depredation. 

Towards the fall of the same year a 
few of them were in full sway with the 
yellows, when they were removed, root 
body and branch at once, but not the 
first indication of insect depredation on 
the roots or stem. Sometimes trees are 
already affected when taken from the 
nursery grounds, they not having been 
noticed at the time. 

The plan, and I think it the only and, 
consequently safest plan, is to take them 
out as above, root, body and branch, at 
once, to prevent any spread by contagion. 
I may remark just here, and most em- 
phatically, that at once is the time to be 
observed in the removal of the diseased 
tree. Suffer no hindrance in ripening 
the approaching promising crop, and on 
the first appearance of but a single speci- 
men of immature fruit, eradicate the 
whole tree, showing no sympathy, nor 
itching palm, to be relieved by a gold or 
silver dollar or two in prospect of the ap- 
proaching crop, and indulge in no penny- 
wise and pound-foolish system of econ- 
omy. But strike at once 'at the root of 
the evil and save yourself from, perhaps, 
a ten-fold sacrifice at the first symptom. 
The first indication, as I have generally 
noticed, is seen in the small wiry shoots 
springing from the body and large 
branches, or from the roots at the base of 
the tree, producing in every instance small 
yellow lanceolate (lance-lfke) leaves, and 
the whole tree in appearance has a 
sickly look in leaves and branches. 



26 PKACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

The second indication is a premature 
ripening of the peach. Sometimes only 
in a single branch, or even a fruit spur, 
and on other trees the fruit on a large 
limb may present the same early matu- 
rity, while in both trees the balance of 
the fruit retains its natural given, thrifty 
condition. But the premature peach is 
a highly colored fruit with the peculiar 
spots and blotches, as described, only 
more numerous, with flesh deep red and 
stringy, and fruit worthless for any pur- 
pose of family use or for marketing. 

Presuming that fungi is the cause of 
the yellows, of which, I think, there is no 
doubt, and if what we call diseased in- 
fections, spread by contact, such as bud- 
ding, trimming, or in any otherway, and 
as they affect the root, body and limbs, 
any remedial agent, or any curative 
agent cannot at once, nor in a year, sur- 
rounded as they maybe by careless cul- 
tivation, at times, whose only use is to 
cultivate parasitic fungi and not peaches, 
prove effectual. In this aspect of the 
case, in addition to lime, potash, guano, 
poudrette and other caustic alkalies, it 
will require the sharp eye of the peach 
grower to detect the symptoms that may 
so provokingly find their way into the 
orchard and nip the peach trees in their 
buds. It is the parasitic fungi that pro- 
duces the sickness, though it is micro- 
scopic and not visible to the naked eye, 
and its seeds or spores are its infection, 
and its touch is its sickness. I am satis- 
fied if a knife is inserted through the 
bark of a sick or diseased tree, the mov- 
ing or current of sap will carry with it, 
in its incision into a healthy tree, a thous- 
and spores, marking, in this way, their 



PEACH CULTURE CiUIDE. 27 

new victim for an early grave. This ac- 
tive sporadic agent appears on the body, 
branches and roots of the tree, and the 
application of alkalies, in a diluted form, 
may be made use of as a wash against 
further spread. Caustic alkalies will de- 
stroy fungi, and of this there can be no 
question. The peach grower, commenc- 
ing right at the beginning of his work, 
will have no trouble if he examines thor- 
oughly his orchard several times during 
the season, and attends to these l 'excep- 
tional 1 ' intruders, which will come unin- 
vited from the nursery, or on a sporadic 
visit from a neighbor, and have all such, 
as soon as they appear, rooted out, re- 
planting young trees in their place, first 
renovating the earth well with our caus- 
tic alkali, such as lime, ashes, guano and 
poudrette. These are the ingredients 
that I have made use of, and good results 
have been obtained. But I wish to say 
that where planting is done on a small 
scale, and where the choice of exposure 
presents itself, I would, unhesitatingly, 
say, all other things being equal, and by 
all means, select a high, dry. northern 
exposure, for occasionally a season of 
early blooming occurs, and as the peach 
is more sensitive to a few days of warm 
sun on a southern exposure than almost 
any other fruit, a northern exposure may 
save the crop, while on the south it may 
be partially or entirely destroyed. Still 
a total destruction seldom occurs. 

In season of overbearing the orchard 
should be cultivated up to about the 
middle of July, with the cultivator and 
harrowed, the same as with the young 
trees before their bearing and while cul- 
tivated in corn, and if they appear to 



28 PEACH CULTURE GUIDE. 

need manure, a light shovelful of wood 
ashes applied to the tree at its base, first 
removing the earth from around it with 
a heavy hoe. This course of treatment 
will keep the trees in a thrifty, growing 
condition, forming wood for the next 
year's crop, and sustaining them through 
their exhaustive efforts under an over 
cropping. But this unnatural draft upon 
the strength of the tree may be avoided 
by a judicious thinning out of the young 
fruit to a moderate crop, as given under 
the head of pruning and planting. iTlie 
peach grower, looking to success, which 
is found alone in the health of his trees, 
must be a bold operator. On the first 
symptom of disease, if only in a twig or a 
fruit spur, it must be eradicated, root, 
body and branch, and, like the barren 
fig tree, cast into the fire, renewing its 
place by first applying to the soil in which 
it grew the necessary curative alkalies in 
sufficient quantity for a healthy recep- 
tion of a new tree at the proper season 
for planting. I think we would have but 
little trouble with the yellows if the fore- 
going directions were carried out fully, 
and followed as given in a preceding 
part of this dissertation. But as long as 
we have no law compelling the eradica- 
tion of a peach tree upon the first symp- 
tom of disease, so long will we have to 
contend with the yellows, and plenty of 
dying, yellow skeletons of peach trees in 
the yards at our homes. Even they art 
generally left until quite dead before re- 
moval, and thus a chance is given them tc 
disseminate their entire sporatic dis- 
ease to all their neighbors for a dis- 
tance of from five to ten miles. One mar 
may say : "I don't care," another, il O, 



PEACH CUI/TURE GUIDE. 29 

this don't matter," while the third, "This 
is good enough." Three poor, miserable 
neighbors are these, not even worthy the 
name applied to them. As before stated, 
such a tree should be eradicated, root, 
body and branches, upon the first symp- 
tom, even if in but a twig. 

Next, I should like to call attention to 
the black knot on the plum tree. I have 
noticed plum trees full of black knots 
from one end of the limb to the other. 
I think this is due, in a great measure, to 
negligence. I have frequently heard the 
remark made, "I have no time to attend 
to such things." To all such I would 
say if there is really such a thing as no 
time to attend and cultivate such fruit 
properly, ten times to one it would be 
better not to plant at all, as to plant it 
to breed insects and to annoy your neigh- 
bor, who, perhaps, is using all his efforts 
to cultivate the fruit in a proper way, 
and he who has not forgotten, tw In the 
sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," 
&c, 

I well recollect thirty-five to forty 
years ago the plum tree to be in a vigor- 
ous state of growth, and bore abundantly. 
But the tree was left to itself, and to its 
own care, with grass at its base and no 
cultivation. The time arrived, however, 
when we were awakened to the tree's 
wants, and the necessity for its protec- 
tion for the faithful services it had done. 
My remedy for the black knot is to have 
the limbs, or twigs containing the knot, 
divested of the knot back into the healthy 
wood in the month of February, after- 
wards burning the knots in order to fully 
insure their thorough eradication. Re- 
peat this operation two to three years, 



30 PEACH CULTURE UUIDE. 

and renovate the soil at base of tree as 
far as the limbs extend with good alka- 
lies or manure, to cause the tree to produce 
a vigorous growth. Such have been ray- 
remedies, and I have found them to at- 
tain good results. 

If the tree is not too far advanced in 
its stage of disease, then I should say, as 
Avith the peach, remove roots, body and 
branches and cast the entire tree into the 
fire, showing no sympathy at all. 

I have omitted to mention in the pre- 
ceding treatise, that with all my experi- 
ence I have never found anything better 
for the apple tree than the two foregoing 
compositions, named under the head of 
the "Borer," with the exception that a 
cloth should be wound close around the 
base of the tree, when a shovel or other 
iron implement should be taken and all 
the loose or extending bark on the stem 
of thje tree carefully scraped off on the 
cloth, and then burned, so as to avoid 
future destruction. Behind such extend- 
ing bark are found good harboring places 
for all such insects to do their breeding. 
Thousands of them can, however, be de- 
stroyed in the way as before indicated, 
thus protecting the tree during the fol- 
lowing summer. Finally, if the apple 
tree is subjected to the same careful treat- 
ment as is given in my former directions 
for the peach, it will be found the following 
spring that the apple tree will have a 
bark as nice and as smooth as a man's 
face after a clean shave. 

WILLIAM S. REINERT, 
Reinerts, 
Berks County, Pa. 
April 1st, 1890. 



'^^' 



rfv OF CWGR ES ^ H 
L IBRA* V ?Lm\1\1\\\\111HI 



PR™ 19418 

-— - 



